In the library
by shark.queen7
Summary: Fitzwilliam Darcy is the work-a-holic CEO of Barclay Bank.He has been reserved and unsociable since the death of his mother.When dragged by his friend to his first university reunion,he escapes the unwanted attention of his old female classmates to the quite of the library.just p&p in modern day.had to write an appropriation for Lit class,please give constructive criticism! 3rd psn


It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. This appeared to be the belief held by many of the people in the room, shown by the blockade made by the women in the room, who held no shame, around Fitzwilliam Darcy, each vying for his attention. Due to his neglect to look at any of them, a handful admitted defeat and wandered away in search of more attentive company. The remaining women remained undeterred as they attempted conversation with him. They held good reason for their actions as he was a prize for them, the most eligible bachelor. Handsome, rich, powerful and with good connections, the only fault they found with him was a cold, reserved personality which gave the impression of pride. It was this pride which caused many to scorn him due to the belief he believed those less fortunate than him were underserving, ill-mannered and disagreeable beings.

It was true that he thought this, though only applying it to particular people whom he met. Fitzwilliam believed that he was not at fault; he was born into wealth, heir to a vast estate owned by the CEO of Barclays bank, or in other words, his father. His mother had been a doctor, working at a children's hospital in London. It was shortly after the birth of his sister, his junior by twelve years, when his mother fell ill. It took months for her to finally be defeated, dying a week before Fitzwilliam's thirteenth birthday, and never living to see her daughters first. He had been close to his mother, and the loss of her warmth was taken harshly by both Fitzwilliam and his father. The raising of his sister Georgiana was taken over by housekeeper of their family home, Pemberley Estate, as Fitzwilliam had been sent to live in their London house with his father to go to school. From then onwards, Fitzwilliam seldom returned to his childhood home, resulting in rarely seeing his sister. His father had thrown himself into his work, to the point where he did nothing else. Eventually, when Fitzwilliam was twenty years old and studying at Cambridge University, and his sister was eight years old receiving an education at a private school in Derbyshire near Pemberley, their father finally worked himself to death, leaving everything to Fitzwilliam, including guardianship over Georgiana. She would receive her inheritance when she turned eighteen. Fitzwilliam, Following deeply in his father's footsteps, Fitzwilliam throw himself into his work once leaving university, dedicating his life to capture the position his father had held at the Barclays bank. His dedication payed off; by the young age of twenty seven, Fitzwilliam was promoted to the position of CEO, becoming the man he is today, the most eligible bachelor.

After receiving the promotion, Fitzwilliam was able to become more flexible, having reached his work place goal, and began paying more attention to his sister and close friends. He had begun making regular trips to Pemberley to be with her more often; though he still had many responsibilities to attend to out of work hour in London, making it difficult for him. For instance, currently he had been dragged by he's good friend from his university days, back to Cambridge for the first reunion. He had not been particularly popular, which was a result from his unsociable behaviour, but due to his current status he was targeted at all events he went to, and this had been no different. He gained a break from attention when the speeches began, allowing him to slip out the doors unnoticed.

It had not been too long since he had been walking the pathways of the campus, which allowed him to quickly appear at the extensive campus library. Walking in, he noticed the abnormally large amounts of people scattered around the building. He was able to quickly remember the time of year it was; the end of semester exams could only be a week or two away, which explained the mass amount of students present. Fitzwilliam had been relatively unfamiliar with library, entering it fewer times than the number of times he had been in the same house as his sister. He navigated through the book shelves attempting to find a location suitable to sit. As he turned the corner to enter a new row of shelves, a young woman entered his line of sight in the space before him, resulting in the two being crashing into each other and the woman's books thumped onto the ground. They glanced at each other in shock, in that moment he was struck by staring into a pair of fine eyes. Once the initial shock wore of, they knelt to the ground and collected her fallen books. He took note of the books she had collected, all of which had been novels from the romantic genre. "At least," he thought, "most of them were classics and not the disgraceful slobbery romance of modern novels". He showed his disgust on his face as he walked off without a word, much to the displeasure of the young woman who had been attempting to apologize to him for fault which they both owned.

She had been Elizabeth Bennet, second eldest daughter of five daughters, currently studying English at Cambridge University. The current topic had been the genre of romance, a genre she enjoyed from time to time when written well. It was her two youngest, sillier siblings who revealed in modern day romantic novels. She glared after the disagreeable man and huffed in annoyance at his behaviour. Turing away she began searching for a seat to read at and take notes for her class.

After minutes of wandering the crowded room, she discovered two empty seats at a desk at a reasonable distance away from the stressed atmosphere of students. She herself excelled at English and felt fully prepared for the exams which would take place in the following week. Sitting down at the desk, she began setting herself up as someone took the seat next to her. She glanced up, and to her disbelief she realised it was the man who she had bumped into. She took a moment to take him in; he had dark hair and fair skin, no blemishes to take note of, he was dressed in a fine suit, which was odd for the environment he was in; his face, after studying for a moment, revealed he may be several years older than her. It was possible he may not be a student she concluded from his lack of study material in front of him. He glanced up at her, and she could see he's features betray a sense of shock, particularly in his dark eyes. He gaze moved from his face to his hand where a phone was held with what appeared to be an email opened on it. She quirked her eyebrow, it was unusual for someone to come to the library to used their phone and no other purpose.

"If you're looking for something to do, you are in a library you know. You could read if you're bored." Elizabeth spoke to him, her voice swallowing the bubble of silence which trapped them, "if you need suggestions, you couldn't have picked a better person to sit next to." She offered a smile at this. Though she was still annoyed at his lack of apology earlier, he could have walked away without helping pick up her books, so she may as well attempt to be friendly to him; maybe she could find out if he was in fact a student here.

He looked at her, hesitating a moment before speaking, "I do not read for pleasure." He turned away to focus on his emails, preventing any further conversation.

Elizabeth's eye's furrowed with disapproval, she enjoyed conversation, she held her temper at his rudeness; as well as his apparent dislike of her favourite activity; knowing that not all people enjoyed conversation with strangers. As she began to turn to her books, movement behind the man caught her eye, and another man appeared. He appeared to be friendlier than the man in front of her, the new man's posture was open and inviting, and there was an amused smile on his face.

"Darcy! There you are. You left without saying anything. You know it's impolite, you need to come back to the reunion, there are people seeking for your conversation!" the man exclaimed.

The man seated next to her, apparently named Darcy; a relatively rare first name in her experience, looked up to him and sighed, clearly unhappy to have been found, "I do not appreciate the company of people who have no care for my personality, Bingley. You may go back alone, you're a grown man, and I think you can handle the reunion without me."

Bingley, like Darcy, was a rather odd name, "perhaps they are referring to their last names and not their first." Elizabeth thought.

Bingley pouted, "Come now Darcy, you must come. Remember you came here with me, it is impolite to leave your friend alone."

Bingley's glance landed on Elizabeth, remembering he had seen them speaking prior to his arrival, his eyes widened, "I beg your pardon, Darcy you haven't introduced me to your friend!"

Darcy looks at him, clearly perplexed as to who Bingley was referring to as his friend, as the realization as to who he was referring to dawned on him; Elizabeth had already began to reply for him. "You are mistaken, we exchanged a sentence and that was all you saw. My name is Elizabeth Bennet, an English student here. I assume based on your conversation that you are alumni's of this university?"

Bingley's smile gleamed, "you are correct, this is our five year reunion. I apologize for my assumption; I should have known you were not this unsociable fellow's friend!"

"Bingley!" Darcy snapped at the truthful insult, he took a breath and collected himself, "you say that but I attend many social gatherings and have friends. Exhibit A: you."

Elizabeth laughed at Darcy's reply, she looked towards Bingley before replying to him, and "my sister had her reunion today, but was unable to make it due to sickness. Perhaps you add classes together, her name was Jane Bennet."

The shock was evident on Bingley's face; Darcy as well appeared mildly surprised at this news, glances up at Bingley. Collecting himself, Bingley spoke with enthusiasm, "Yes, Jane was in my class. I would not be able to forget her. She had such a kind personality and was well loved by my classmates as well; she was dearly missed at the reunion."

Bingley smack Darcy's arm, then tugged on his sleeve, "excuse me a moment Elizabeth, I just need to ask Darcy here something, if you could save his seat it would be much appreciated."

Bingley dragged Darcy into a row of bookshelves next to them. Darcy pulled away from bingles grasp as they came to a stop, annoyed at the obvious pinch in his suit. He glanced up, clearly showing his irritation, as well as confusement over why he had been dragged away suddenly, as well as the Bingley's request for Elizabeth to save his seat, could bingley mean to leave him be and allow him not to return to the reunion?

Bingley took a breath before he begun. "Darcy, I must return to the reunion soon as I have people I would like to catch up with, as you clearly do not want to return, I am asking a favour of you. As you know, when we were at university I developed a severe crush on Jane Bennet, though I never had the guts to ask her out. I regret that and now I have a chance to make amends. You must befriend Elizabeth for me; this will give me a chance to be reacquainted with Jane! It was the sole purpose of coming to this reunion to catch up with her, and she did not come. I am asking you as your close friend, please"

Darcy rolled his eyes, "why on earth must I do this, I have already made her acquaintance, I do not wish to further any unnecessary relationships!"

"Darcy, she is very agreeable! You could benefit from making a new friend anyway. If not, she is quite beautiful; maybe you might end up asking her out on a date!" Bingley exclaimed at his stubborn friend.

"She is barley tolerable, I dare say. Not handsome enough to tempt me. I do not wish to further this acquaintance."

Sighing at his stubborn friend, ignoring the rude comment, Binlgey continued, "Fine, your options are to come back with me to the reunion, or do this for me."

Darcy remained silent, glaring at Bingley; to which Bingley smiled sweetly, "you'll enjoy yourself."

Elizabeth sat at her desk with a slight blush of embarrassment and anger having overheard the conversation of the two men standing nearby, she would have been more than happy to contact jane for Binlgey had he asked, and Darcy had no right to say such things about her when he did not know her. Her opinion of him was decreasing by the minute. They were making their way back to her as well, and Darcy was going to stay with her. She hushed in fury, glaring at her book. She could not say anything to them without having it appear that she was eavesdropping on their conversation, which she was but it was not her fault that they stood so close to her." Curse social etiquette!" she muttered under her breath.

The two men reappeared next to her, Bingley was clearly very happy, contrasting to Darcy's displeasure. Darcy sat down without a word. Bingley then decided to get the conversation going before leaving. "Back again, I apologize for that, but there was something urgent I needed to discuss with Darcy."

Darcy responded with a snort. Elizabeth merely raised her eyebrows before replying, that's quite alright, and I had books to keep me occupied." She gestured to the pile of books placed in front of her.

Bingley smiled, "ahhh yes, speaking of books. The estate in which I grew up on had quite a marvellous library."

This perked Elizabeth's interest, "really? How wonderful, we had a collection at my parents estate, though it was not extensive, it consists of only good books. Where do you hail from?"

"I am from Netherfield Park in Hertfordshire! It's a lovely home. As I said the library is marvellous, although I myself prefer the grounds due to my own more adventurous nature. My youngest sister is currently living there while I'm visiting for the reunion. She graduated last year. My elder sister has been married recently." Bingley was clearly very happy to speak of his estate, but the name of it was quickly recognized by Elizabeth.

"Netherfield Park? Why that's n more than three kilometres from my own family estate, longbourn; which is by no means on par with Netherfield in elegance."

"If you're looking for elegance, you should see Darcy's home, Pemberley in Derbyshire. I do remember your estate; I had never made the acquaintance of its owners, mainly as a result of my siblings and I going to boarding school." Bingley replied in thought, deliberating over how he had never come into their acquaintance before.

"It must have been a reasonably long travel for you to come here for Darcy? You wouldn't have had much time to return home often when you were studying."

"On the contrary, from the age of twelve and onwards I lived in London with my father, Pemberley currently only houses my younger sister. It is impractical for me to return to Pemberley often as a result of my work."

"It sounds as if you have quite a depressing social life then." Elizabeth teased him with this obvious fact.

Darcy narrowed his eye, "I disagree, I attend many work functions, maintain close friends. In fact I am currently here for a social engagement."

Elizabeth smirked at this, "yes, the reunion in which you bailed on very early on. I happen to know it goes for several more hours, yet you have already left. From the sounds of your experience, and our own conversation, I would bet you barley spoke while you were there. Work functions do not count as you probably only speak of work, otherwise remaining silent the entire time. It's a safe bet that your social life is depressing."

Darcy's lips pressed together, conveying to Elizabeth that she was indeed correct. After pausing moments, he spoke, "forgive me for neglecting my social life while I attended work related goals. Now that I have completed them, maybe you could suggest ways to brighten my supposed miserable life."

Elizabeth smiled as she was handed an opportunity to turn his own rude words against him, "reading, even if the book is only barley tolerable."

She glanced at her watch before looking back at the two men before her, "excuse me, I have to go. It was a pleasure Bingley, Darcy."

She collected her belongings and walked off with a jump in her step. Bingley groaned, not receiving any opportunity to allow him to be reacquainted with Jane Bennet. While Bingley focused on this aspect, Darcy connected the dots between his comment to Bingley and Elizabeth's to his. He froze when he realized the meaning behind Elizabeth's words as he watches her walk out of sight.


End file.
